November 8, 2023: The Sunlight Group confirmed on November 2 it was spinning off its lead recycling operations into a new subsidiary to guarantee raw material supplies for lead battery production.
The establishment of the wholly-owned ‘Sunlight Recycling’ was approved at an extraordinary meeting of shareholders on October 27.
Sunlight group CEO Lampros Bisalas said the move would create one of the largest secondary lead producers in the world, help to expand the Greece-based firm’s collection of used batteries in Europe and America and make its lead battery production operations more competitive.
The group’s existing lead battery recycling plant in Komotini (see image), in north-eastern Greece, will in future be part of the new subsidiary.
Bisalas said in May that Sunlight was increasing investment at Komotini, to gradually double lead production capacity from the existing 50,000 tonnes annually.
Komotini’s expanded capacity will cover about 50% of the group’s future lead supply needs for its battery production plant at Xanthi and allow Sunlight to supply some 23,000 tonnes to third-party European battery makers.
Sunlight is also working on plans to launch a lithium battery recycling plant within the next three years on the back of a €30 million ($32 million) investment by the company, plus a €3.5 million contribution from the European Union.
In June, Bisalas told the Pb2023 conference in Athens that expanding innovation in lead battery technology was key to the industry having a bright future.